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Virginia Senate Candidate Honors Hamas Associate

On September 25, the 23rd Arab-American Candidates’ Night Dinner was held in Virginia, attended by 46 Democrats and Republicans seeking office, with former governor and current Democratic Senate candidate, Tim Kaine, as a major speaker. The dinner honored a top Muslim Brotherhood official affiliated with Hamas named Jamal Barzinji, an inconvenient and overlooked fact for Kaine’s campaign team.

Tim Kaine was the governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010 and then was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was on the short-list to become President Obama’s running mate. He is now running for Senate and will likely face off against former Senator George Allen, who narrowly lost his seat in 2006 to Senator Jim Webb. Democratic Senator Mark Warner also sent a videotaped message to the conference.

Kaine thanked the audience for their help with his gubernatorial campaign and asked for them to again support him in his quest to become a senator. This is troubling when you consider what else happened that night: A Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon Jamal Barzinji, called a “founding father” of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. and an associate of Hamas. His Wikipedia page has been altered to boast of the award and Kaine’s attendance.

FBI documents from 1987-1988 flat-out state that Barzinji is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He played an instrumental role in setting up the Brotherhood networks in the U.S. decades ago. In 1972, he was the president of the Muslim Students Association, identified as a Brotherhood front in the Islamist group’s own documents. He was a founder of the North American Islamic Trust and a top official with the Islamic Society of North America, both labeled by the federal government as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for financing Hamas. A judge ruled in 2009 that the government provided “ample evidence” tying the two organizations to Hamas.

Barzinji is the vice president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, another prominent Muslim Brotherhood front. An internal Brotherhood file from May 1991 lists the IIIT as being part of its American network. The same document frankly says that this network’s goal is to wage a “grand jihad” that results in “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within” so that Sharia-based governance can be instituted.

He is also a founder of the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. The mosque is very closely tied to the Brotherhood and Hamas, with a government document accusing it of “operating as a front for Hamas operatives in the U.S.” Anwar al-Awlaki served as the mosque’s imam from January 2001 to March 2002, and its services were attended by two of the 9/11 hijackers and the Fort Hood shooter. It continues to spout extremism to this day.

Barzinji had his home searched as part of a terrorism investigation in 2003. Special Agent David Kane said in a sworn affidavit to the judge authorizing the search that he “is not only closely associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]…but also with Hamas.”

The affidavit mentioned his ties to Sami al-Arian, a Brotherhood member who secretly led PIJ operations in the U.S. Barzinji held positions with seven other organizations who had their offices raided: The IIIT, SAFA Trust, SAAR, Amana Trust, Mar-Jac Investments, Mena Investments and Reston Investments. Patrick Poole broke the story that the Obama Justice Department has blocked the prosecution of Barzinji, among other top Muslim-American officials tied to the Brotherhood and Hamas.

This isn’t the first time that Kaine has associated himself with Muslim Brotherhood figures masquerading as moderates. In 2007, Kaine appointed the president of the Muslim American Society, Esam Omeish, to the state’s Commission of Immigration. It is well-documented that the MAS is a Brotherhood front, and it was also known that Omeish is on the board of directors of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque. He calls the Muslim Brotherhood a “moderate” organization and admits being influenced by it.

In 2004, Omeish praised the spiritual leader of Hamas as “our beloved Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.” Videotape surfaced of a speech Omeish gave in 2000 where he saluted Palestinians that understand “the jihad way is the way to liberate your land” and pledged to do everything possible to help them. Omeish subsequently resigned, but Kaine did not learn his lesson. Even after that embarrassment, Kaine failed to learn about the Brotherhood network.

The Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. depends upon the ignorance of the media and government officials. It takes advantage of politicians’ desires for Muslim votes, as their commitment to victory makes them overlook the Islamist ties of those they embrace as part of their campaigns. Tim Kaine is the exact type of official the Brotherhood is looking for.